- Joined
- Apr 22, 2019
- Messages
- 46,946
- Reaction score
- 22,884
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Progressive
I watched an interview today with a Russian dissident who was twice poisoned by Putin. It reminded me of this.
It's easy to condemn 'Russia this' and 'Russia that'. Because so much of Russia is controlled by Putin who is doing so much harm.
When the Soviet Union fell, there was a sort of assumption in the west over decades - Russian commies suck, west is great, if they just got rid of communism they could also be a great free country. As if that just happened.
When they fell, the west could have engaged and tried to help them transition. I think we largely didn't. And the neglect from the west allowed rot, as the country had criminal opportunists seize the massive state assets and turn them into private wealth for instant billionaires, and created a kleptocracy. Not good for the Russian people, and working with a kleptocrat in chief, Putin, soon enough.
What a mistake. We're seeing the price.
This dissident said there are millions of Russians who want Russia to have real democracy, to have freedom, and to 'act responsibly with others'.
Luckily, unlike China, the problems in Russia seem largely based in Putin. When he is out of power, there seems every opportunity for their country to get 'fixed'. An analogy would be how well German and Japan were 'fixed' after WWII, and today are seen as very good countries.
But we need to frickin plan for the effort to work with them to help this happen, and we should have it not be run by our own corrupt interests trying to exploit the situation any more than the Russian oligarchs should have been allowed to.
It's easy to forget how this can be done in the midst of their being the modern Nazis in mass murder. But it can be done, and there is no reason to have to blame 99.9% of Russia if it is. Can we bother to try to do it, instead of neglect again as we have in many cases? The first time, the optimism was high enough to even talk of Russia in NATO - including Putin agreeing. We and Europe should try to plan to help them transition ending the Second Cold War..
It's easy to condemn 'Russia this' and 'Russia that'. Because so much of Russia is controlled by Putin who is doing so much harm.
When the Soviet Union fell, there was a sort of assumption in the west over decades - Russian commies suck, west is great, if they just got rid of communism they could also be a great free country. As if that just happened.
When they fell, the west could have engaged and tried to help them transition. I think we largely didn't. And the neglect from the west allowed rot, as the country had criminal opportunists seize the massive state assets and turn them into private wealth for instant billionaires, and created a kleptocracy. Not good for the Russian people, and working with a kleptocrat in chief, Putin, soon enough.
What a mistake. We're seeing the price.
This dissident said there are millions of Russians who want Russia to have real democracy, to have freedom, and to 'act responsibly with others'.
Luckily, unlike China, the problems in Russia seem largely based in Putin. When he is out of power, there seems every opportunity for their country to get 'fixed'. An analogy would be how well German and Japan were 'fixed' after WWII, and today are seen as very good countries.
But we need to frickin plan for the effort to work with them to help this happen, and we should have it not be run by our own corrupt interests trying to exploit the situation any more than the Russian oligarchs should have been allowed to.
It's easy to forget how this can be done in the midst of their being the modern Nazis in mass murder. But it can be done, and there is no reason to have to blame 99.9% of Russia if it is. Can we bother to try to do it, instead of neglect again as we have in many cases? The first time, the optimism was high enough to even talk of Russia in NATO - including Putin agreeing. We and Europe should try to plan to help them transition ending the Second Cold War..